Art history

Art and Place: Sites, Spaces and Identities

Module code: V4158
Level 6
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Seminar
Assessment modes: Presentation, Dissertation

This module will consider how works of art and visual culture relate to the places in which they are produced and consumed, or to which they make reference. It will start by considering a variety of site-specific works, from land art to murals, and will range across other practices such as performance and conceptual art.

You will acquire frameworks to discuss how works of art engage with urban locations and the natural world, as well as the role played by cultural production in developing regional and national identities. The examples in the taught component of the module will be drawn from nineteenth and twentieth century American art, but the module will equip you to research how works of art, architecture, and visual culture relate to place from a wide variety of other contexts.

Module learning outcomes

• Demonstrate detailed and coherent critical evaluation of specific visual culture relating to this subject and understanding of the significance of this theme to wider thematic debates in art history.
• Undertake sustained independent written research and develop in-depth argument taking into account a variety of scholarly perspectives.
• Synthesize complex scholarly information and independent research coherently in the form of oral presentation.
• Demonstrate critical understanding of some of the differing approaches of current art-historical scholarship about this subject and how specific examples relate to the overall issues of the topic.